PORTAL TO THE PAST: AETHERTOPIA!
It's the FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of #TeamINSYM's first show together - We'll recap this steampunk event and it's importance to us!
Hey all! From time to time #TeamINSYM likes to take a look back at important moments in our history. Today we'll hop in the portal and go back FIVE YEARS ago to our appearance at AETHERTOPIA! (Make sure to stick around until the end of this article for a limited-time discount code in celebration!)
SO WHAT WAS AETHERTOPIA? It was a weekend long steampunk experience that ran out of Tampa, FL in 2018. While it was a perfect event to showcase our title HEIRS OF ISILDUR (at the time we had only released 5 issues of THE CROSSROADS CONUNDRUM and the accompanying metal CD), its relevance in #TeamINSYM's history holds much more importance: This was the first show that MATT & STEPH did together!
Before that time, both halves of the #TeamINSYM whole were pursuing their own forays in content creation on opposite coasts of the country (Florida and California respectively). When we met online in January of 2018, it was immediately evident that not only were we like-minded, but that the other person possessed certain skills and strengths that we each needed if we wanted to continue navigating the pothole filled content creation path.
We knew very early on that we were going to pool our projects together and operate as a team on everything we could. We both already had experience working with associates across the country and internationally, so this wouldn't be much different.
AETHERTOPIA provided us with a different opportunity. While we had both done some smaller events individually, this show was going to need the 'full team on hand'. With Steph being in California, and the show and I being in Florida, there wasn’t much real belief that we'd do this together. Much to my surprise, the time between casually asking Steph if she could / would like to attend, and confirmation of her Florida trip was less than 12 hours. We were on our way to our first show as a unit.
AETHERTOPIA had many FIRSTS for #TeamINSYM:
* First live appearance together
* First steampunk show
* First time running / hosting a panel
* First time winning an award together (Storytellers Guild Award)
One of the best aspects of this show was meeting an entirely new crowd that neither of us had much involvement with (I had been to steampunk shows as an attendee, but never 'on the other side of the table', and this was Steph's first experience with the steampunk crowd.) Many of the people we met at that show, we still consider friends to this day (in no particular order, and also not an all-inclusive list - we KNOW there are names that will be left out and we apologize in advance): The 'Steampots', Captain Robert Brown (Abney Park), Olivier Xavier, Stephen Hats, Thirl Hupp, Kelli-Anne Luckey, Bobbi O'Bry, and so many more. We even got to meet Jim Smentowski from BattleBots!
So what did we learn from AETHERTOPIA? Simple. That we were only at the start of a content creation path that has stretched to this day. There’s been double digit subsequent releases for HEIRS OF ISILDUR since then, multiple spinoffs (TALES FROM NOCTURNIA, and the upcoming I AM QIDO), nearly 100 more live appearances, and so many other opportunities… but make no mistake, AETHERTOPIA proved to us that this was the right path for us to be on. We OFFICIALLY incorporated Insymmetry Creations as an LLC not long after.
DISCOUNT CODE: To celebrate July 7th being the 5 year anniversary of this show, we're providing you with a CODE: '5AETH' that will get you 7% off any purchase from our store from July 7th through July 10th. So if there's anything you've wanted to pick up (or catch up on), now is the time! VISIT OUR STORE HERE!
WHAT’S NEXT?: We have more LIVE APPEARANCES to reveal, new ARTICLES and PODCASTS to share, and how about some more I AM QIDO previews? Sound good?
That’s what we have for today!
Thanks!
Matt & Steph
#TeamINSYM
www.linktree.com/insymmetrycreations
